THE CPI(M) Kerala state committee has decided to intensify the struggle against the UDF government’s anti-people measures by rallying more and more people. The Party would also intervene in the agriculture sector with a modern and timely developmental outlook, CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said in a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on November 17.
SIXTEEN Left parties in West Bengal called upon the people to steadfastly defend secular ideas and fight against attempted communal polarisation in the state. In a first of its kind, these parties assembled in a convention against communalism in Kolkata on November 13 and decided to organise rallies, public meetings throughout the state. On December 6, apart from programmes in districts, a massive joint rally will be held in Kolkata against communal forces. The Left parties have called upon all democratic and secular people to participate in the rally.
THE Central Working Committee of the All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) met at the SM Joshi Foundation in Pune, Maharashtra from November 11 to 12. The Union represents the largest number of organised agricultural labour in the country and expressed its concern over the NDA government’s anti-people policies in cutting down all types of security of the mass of people in employment, food and social services for the rural poor.
The following is the press statement issued by the Delhi Union of Journalists on November 19, 2014
THE Delhi Union of Journalists welcomes the judgement of the Delhi High Court reinstating the 272 workers of the Hindustan Times.
The DUJ congratulates the 272 brave workers of the Hindustan Times Ltd for their historic victory against the management. Justice Suresh Kait has termed their retrenchment arbitrary, upheld the earlier judgement of the Industrial Tribunal and granted them reinstatement in service with back wages for the past nine years.
THE bilateral Joint Announcement on Climate Change Agreement released by the US and China on November 11 on the sidelines of the APEC Meeting in Beijing has imparted a new momentum to the troubled negotiations towards a post-Kyoto global emissions control agreement expected to be agreed at the UNFCCC Summit in Paris in December 2015.
THE shocking incident in Chhattisgarh, where thirteen women died and many more fell severely ill after undergoing an operation for female sterilisation (tubectomy), shows a mirror to all that is wrong with the public health system in India. The episode is also a clear indictment of the entire population control agenda of the Indian government, which has, for decades, been characterised by targeting and coercion of poor women and gross rights violations.
THE world capitalist economy has been mired in stagnation and high unemployment ever since the 2008 financial crisis. Many were predicting that a turnaround was about to occur, partly because of the fact that the US economy last month showed larger job creation than of late, and also because it had grown at 3.5 percent last quarter which is higher than for some time now.
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on November 14.
THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) expresses its strong opposition to the Modi government’s decision to increase excise duty on petrol and diesel. There has been a steep hike of Rs 1.50 per litre.
Petrol and diesel are already heavily taxed and this constitutes a major part of the retail price. Therefore, there is no justification for this tax hike.
BY now it is clear, despite all the high pitched rhetoric, that PM Modi is more aggressively pursuing the very same neo-liberal economic reform trajectory that this government has inherited from the earlier UPA government. This is happening like it did initially with Dr Manmohan Singh invoking illusions of an `era of prosperity’ which will convert India into a land of `milk and honey’.
Parliament must legislate to ensure reservations in private sector and to make the corporates accountable for its implementation felt Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) chairman Sukhadeo Thorat. Nowhere in the world is such affirmative action completely voluntary and self regulatory as it is in India now, he pointed out.